The repeatedly convicted Vitale finally received his sentence in a case that concerned AOL. He and another man, Todd Moeller, engaged in the kind of spamming that filtering measures should stop, but in AOL’s case, did not.

Reuters said Vitale picked up a 30-month sentence in the case, as well as a $180,000 penalty to be repaid to AOL.

They managed to elude AOL’s defense through a combination of relays and forged headers, which suggests the use of compromised computers as part of a botnet. Such botnets regularly figure in massive spamming campaigns.

Vitale originally faced 11 years in jail and a $250,000 fine for violating the CAN-SPAM Act. Vitale came to the attention of federal authorities after assuring a government informant he could spam about 300 million people.

Vitale also suggested a deal with the informant that would have Vitale spam people with ads for a security product in exchange for half the profits on that product’s sales.